posted 1 year ago
My take on thermal mass is that it is mass as in quantity and thermal in that it delays the transmission of heat or cold through it. So anything with enough mass can delay the transmission of temperature change or can retain a constant temperature. Our home is constructed with 300 mm (1') compressed earth blocks so the temperature transmission delay is, according to what I have read, 10 hours. What we have effectively is a heat pump. With good management, our house is between 16 deg C and 27 deg C all year round. We have a wood fire (A rmh/ stove is in the planning) and ceiling fans. In a 12 month period, we never have a living space is too cold and if we don't get it right, a couple of days that are too hot (over 30 deg C) The construction is post and beam to prevent the engineering and stabilisation of the bricks. They are 100% dirt from our block of land. An air gap is also a great form of thermoregulation. We have a metal foil, a bit like double layer bubble wrap under our glass wool fibre mats. This gives us about an R10 so we lose little heat through the ceiling.
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